I lied. If some how I do make it... Everyone in this thread is getting this treatment:
| Flag: | United States |
| Registered: | February 20, 2024 |
| Last post: | July 15, 2026 at 10:10 PM |
| Posts: | 1881 |
I lied. If some how I do make it... Everyone in this thread is getting this treatment:
Last thing I'm going to say on this thread.
If the popular way to do things worked then it would work.
100T's Coaching staff pretended to go outside and preyed on people's dreams. That's not cool. The simple fact is that me and many others were not talked to and they ended up with a tier 2 coach and a radiant player.
I just wanted to draw attention to that fact. The fact that Nadeshot talks about how he tried to do everything and here is a good example where the effort level was near zero.
If you don't like my work, that's fine. Like I said, if the current meta for coaching was a working system, we would have successful coaches. But in reality, we don't. Most coaches have a negative win rate. I'm just trying to be an advocate for the community. I think you deserve better. I think you deserve people who do more work than less.
Sorry if you disagree.
Unfortunately in the world of competitive sports we are measured by wins and losses. No offense but I'm going to pass on your advice.
https://liquipedia.net/valorant/MCe/Coaching
Maryville Esports
Total Wins: 5
Total Losses: 12
Record: 5-12
Cloud9
Total Wins: 4
Total Losses: 4
Record: 4-4
The Guard
Total Wins: 7
Total Losses: 9
Record: 7-9
Gen.G Esports
Total Wins: 3
Total Losses: 13
Record: 3-13
I think I'm just going to respond to this one. I think certain people are being unprofessional. I understand that this person has had a hard time dealing with organizations and people who have different opinions to them. I'm simply not going to engage.
In the data, you can see why these teams do not perform at the level they should. If you mix the tracker ranked data with the data of previous performances, it gives you a pretty clear idea of how they will perform.
I don't think there is enough discussion and agreement on the fundamentals. The conversations that come out of those are more towards unification of ideas. If a player feels that holding on site is the best way to do something and you have a player on the opposite side of that then that's a discussion you should have. And there are hundreds of those discussions to be had all across the map. Everyone has to be on the same page or the house of cards can collapse.
On top of this, you pretty much need to have a mutual understanding of how your teammates are going to respond to things. You're 100% right that they have 8k hours combined but all of that is from different perspectives.
And to your idea about money, one of the greatest coaches of all time meditated with his players. I challenge your notion that it would be a waste of time.
First, none of this truly matters. If you're reading this post please consider donating to the victims of the Los Angeles fires:
https://secure.lafoodbank.org/site/Donation2?df_id=1800&mfc_pref=T&1800.donation=form1
Second, someone cool helped me out with my submission and I want to give him a shoutout, Nabil Elouahabi, basically gave me a bunch of dialogue that I created a fun video for my submission. He has a Cameo page and you should check it out ( https://www.cameo.com/valorant1973 )
Third, I think a couple of important people jumped to conclusions about my work. I don’t think you can fit my system into the traditional way of doing things. While I appreciate their critiques, their time spent was a bit misguided.
I would also like to take the time to again point out the current state of the landscape. We see what the current work leads to. My comments about the size of the analysis that is handed over to players should alarm you as a viewer. You cannot truly believe that handing a one page response to a player is anything close to professional. If you disagree with me, I would point you to HBO specials like Hard Knock: https://www.hbo.com/hard-knocks . Just look at the binders they carry around. That sort of preparation is what leads to amazing sports moments. Talent needs knowledge to thrive. Many people do not have this knowledge required so they make it about other things.
Thank you to the people who took the time to read my work. Good or bad, if you actually took the time to read it, I appreciate you.
The context that is missing from the critiques is that my work leads to discussions. The number one rule in any sort of strategy effort is that your perfect plan is going to fail. The sizing of this is supposed to acknowledge that. There needs to be a foundation from which knowledge can grow.
A one page analysis of your analysts thoughts and conclusions is not going to get you there. You don’t know any of the inputs such as their skill and knowledge of the subject, how they are feeling, what experience they have in composing documents that require them to be non-bias or even if they had a bad breakfast.
I spent some time on individual players. But I think many of my critics think it is just the 100T and FNC players. Nope, it was 19 different teams.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SJK_Brlfyf0urXM0rbqdXmpk6qgad_9Z?usp=drive_link
I didn’t feel like I could adequately give an analysis report without doing the film. So in addition to my work and research into the players, I needed to see the games that the past teams played to see if there were any adjustments in the way they played. An analysis would be pointless if it was an entirely different roster/comp/coach.
So what I did was cut every single game into rounds. From each of those rounds I created a mini-map focused video. This way I could see at a high level what is usually missed in analysis work if you were purely using VCT footage.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1U02rpKLO580ozSZ04tqUrgYrfYfHlsE2?usp=drive_link
Once again, the goal of my work is not the output. It’s the path I journey to get to a place of expertise that can then be utilized by the organization.
I'm not going to attack anyone individually but I would just like to point out that my work is a direct attack on theirs. To see what someone is capable of and then to have to look at your work product can produce jealousy. As people in positions of privilege they should look at my work and applaud it. I tried and produced something of value. It's just weird that you would take 10 minutes of skimming it to try and destroy it. That's some shameful stuff. Do better.
I used ChatGPT to edit grammar. I'm more than happy to share my unedited version.
A couple months ago, Zikz and 100T put out an open call for coaching.
I spent 2 weeks putting a tremendous amount of time and effort to create these two analysis reports:
100T Icebox
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zYRtRbyClNjJXx-vbA2X6s64IlaVGfhV/view?usp=drive_link
FNC Haven
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kE90FXjCtj_qaXCOp-j0pInVEdqL1KEz/view?usp=drive_link
Despite the effort, despite reaching out to Zikz two weeks after the deadline for any word, I was ghosted. Only to find out that your average VCT scouting/analysis report is 1/200th the size.
The reason I'm bringing this up is because I'm tired of seeing Nadeshot and 100 Thieves continue the narrative that they are trying everything they can. They simply are not. They are just continuing the one thing that has plagued esports, cronyism. The normal size of an analysis report in VCT is 1-2 pages. For a game that is supposed to be "TACTICAL" ... how do you fit a scouting report into one page?
How does Nadeshot and the 100T organization pay for such mediocracy when people put real effort into their applications? Esports needs to stop being a revolving door.
The idea of system players. That's not a real thing. It's just a way for people to continue propping up failing players. They do the same thing with coaches. Pretending that esports isn't a competition and that people who lose shouldn't be shown the door.
Nadeshot nailed in it in the first couple of minutes... "You've known me for a long time"
Zikz a friend thus immune to criticism. Same with the response on twitter, those are all coaches who are all in the same boat as Zikz. Line up almost 100% of the coaches in Valorant and it's just a bunch of friends. Every single coach knows that this isn't a job that you get on merit. This is a job you get by having connections and having someone GIVE the spot to you. Players are the same.
We are always going to have terrible teams, terrible tourneys and terrible orgs if we continue down the path which Nadeshot lays out so wonderfully.
If you are a friend, you get a job.
This dude. Woke up in the morning, thought he was on the team. You are making up stuff to cope. This is PURE copium. OP has no idea what he/she/they is talking about lol. They should be inclusive of reading some books.
You have an email account stacked with people who gave a good faith effort in their coaching applications. It is absolutely insane your org cheated all those people. But you can still make up for it. Actually do a coach search.
Zikz is held down by a ceiling to which it will take him years to break through.
He has no foundation in the genre. It would be like JJ Reddick deciding to coach baseball because they both use a ball. And then Mr. Reddick some how is supposed to strategies in these nuanced situations.
This community is super unrealistic. Coaches not only need to know the game they are coaching up and down. They need to be able to communicate those ideas in a way that allow the players to progress in their skill journey. I think everyone believes LeBron James came into the league and never had to learn a thing. Development has to happen for players to get better. Development is not scrimming for 12 hours a day. It's not trying to RNG improvement.
Most of this league's coaches are fraudulent and if you held up their records to any sort of scrutiny would get destroyed. Zikz is at 44%. What coach in any professional sport gets to keep their job at that win rate?
I'm confused by the communities response. They did a fraudulent coach search where they said they were going to look for anyone. In the end they got the same insider people.
I think the community doesn't know the dirty secret about coaching. Please anyone ask their favorite player, "How long is the average analyst report?" Spoiler, it's one singular page long.
How does anyone expect to get results when the very basics are not being done by the coaching staff? Not to mention, an assistant coach on EG, Zikz, claims to have contributed to EG's historic run, but we are looking at a 44% win rate since he's been on staff. I'm sorry, a coach needs to be a tactical fps player. Not a professional coach.
How do you guide a team to a win when you have no foundation in the genre you're a coach in? What if there is a missing component that all the professional players don't know or something that would help them from the past...
I just don't see grabbing some tier 2 player as the solution. This is a problem with the strategies that are being applied. The glaring foundational issues with players.
They should have actually tried to find a coach instead of farming others for ideas. Cheers to Anderzzz for that call out.
100 Thieves Match Results since Coach Zikz Summary
Total Matches: 36
Wins: 16
Losses: 20
Win/Loss Rate: 44.44%
100 Thieves Match Results Since Zikz Summary
Total Matches: 36
Wins: 16
Losses: 20
Win/Loss Rate: 44.44%
Real problem is 100T Coach Zikz has a 44% win rate. If any coach had that in any professional sports they would be let go.
When a team loses, this community goes after the players.
When a team wins, this community celebrates the coaching staff.
100T has been a mid team for the entirety of Zikz coaching period. We have removed and added players. Time to remove Zikz. Being a part of a winning organization does not mean you are a winner.
Are you just now figuring out the desk has no idea what they are talking about and are simply there to control the narrative? When a team lose "oh my god they have improved so much" or "the coaching staff really has this team doing protocols and you can see their success"... just a bunch of canned robotic statements that are so far from their actual definitions.
Why are we dropping players? To pick up lower tiered players? Fire Zikz and the coaching staff. Stop going after players.
How do you even come up with this? Seriously? Can you link me these strats you saw?
So is my mailman at this point by your logic.
I figured out why Yay is good. It's the way people play defense.
People need to peek for intel and he is just capitalizing on their peeks. That's why it doesn't work on defense. He basically uses people's anxiety against them and just waits them out.
That's actually crazy. A guy who is aimed-focused is going to be living in the Astral Plane? The reason aimers play Omen is because they can focus on their aim. It's going to force him to be more aware of the map and more attentive to his teammates. These are not characteristics of Yay.
I hope I'm wrong.
Also I'll try to help you better understand using a comparison between all the Sentinels and Sage and how they are similar. I'm going to focus on her Barrier and her Slow Orb and show you how those things do the same things as the other agents.
Killjoy
KJ's turret, when you get hit by the turret, do you run at the same speed? No, so in essence it is a slow
KJ's molly's when paired with alarm bot, if anything this is more like a controller because it makes you vulnerable then the mollys damage you. This is very unique to KJ, she is a Sentinel + Damage. But the slow is there and her ability to stop you from moving in a certain space is the same as the wall. The space is locked down.
Cypher
Tripwire, very much like a slow. Can you run through a tripwire? How do you have to approach a tripwire? Running or walking? If you're walking, then your speed is attacked more or less, thus it is very much like a slow.
Cypher's kit is more about intel but a combination of his cage plus either camera or trip, locks down an area.
Chamber
The Trademark ability pretty much acts inline with a trip but once again can you run through the trip? Do you have to approach is slowly? If anything it is a very weak slow because it gives you a sound cue but at the end of the day, you cannot run past it.
Chamber's kit is more gun mechanic focused but with his general playstyle associated with the Operator, the area is pretty much guaranteed locked down. This was more obvious in the previous iterations of Chamber.
Deadlock
Sonic Sensor, similar in that you cannot just run through the trip. We get the same characteristics out of her version of the trip. But Deadlock is more about ambushing. This is similar to Chamber in that Chamber isn't used as an agent that might hide like Cypher or KJ, Deadlock was created to be aggressive post entry. I don't like her ultimate, but you cannot deny that it is not made for small spaces. Definitely a lockdown agent.
Vyse
I mean, do I even? She has a wall, She has a slow. Her ultimate removes guns in a giant circle.
Conclusion:
As you can see, each agent is trying to attack movement with their abilities. You cannot run past Sentinel utility with paying a fee.
I think people often get hung up on the fact that the community in general tries to tie performance to agents. Performance and Agents have very little to do with each other as people generally understand it. You are not a good Omen player because you place smokes before entry. A good Omen player may use teleport to be flashy but the gun eliminates the player. And I don't think anyone is going to argue that a well placed grenade makes you the best Raze player.
You really need to untie those two things. If anything, abilities provide you with an advantage. But in no way would a great Omen player go up against Tenz and win every engagement because they are a great Omen player.
I want to challenge you to look beyond the community’s critiques of Deadlock. Don’t let the general opinion dictate your own thinking. As we’ve discussed before, Sentinel abilities are not undefeatable—there’s never been such a thing as a “safe flank.” All Sentinel utility can be bypassed in some way.
Deadlock’s kit has many oppressive tools, but the community often approaches her playstyle through the lens of Cypher and Killjoy, which limits their perspective. This mindset causes players to miss opportunities for creative strategy. If new agents played exactly like their predecessors, the game would quickly become boring. Instead, to truly understand Deadlock, you need to analyze what it means to “cover the flank” and how her unique mechanics fit into the game.
From a game mechanics perspective, a player’s field of vision (FOV) is roughly 105 degrees, meaning you can’t visually cover 255 degrees of your surroundings. Even if you place something to alert you to an enemy’s presence, you still need to see them to act. But what if the enemy retreats after triggering your utility? What if you go to investigate and find nothing? Isn’t that information valuable in itself? Assuming utility will always guarantee control of space is unhealthy thinking.
Covering the flank isn’t just about holding space—it’s about helping your team win rounds. Too many Sentinel players lose sight of this. The ultimate goal isn’t to perfectly execute your role; it’s to secure victory. There’s no grading system for your performance as a Sentinel. Winning is what matters.
When we look beyond the community’s criticisms, Deadlock’s kit is far more oppressive than it seems. Her Sonic Sensor, for example, isn’t meant to function like a tripwire; it’s an ambush tool. Placing the sensor so that its detection range ends just past an entry point can create a sense of false security for attackers. When it goes off, you can throw up her barrier wall to isolate attackers from their teammates. Most players will panic and retreat when stunned, giving you an opportunity to follow up with her net grenade. This forces the enemy team to make tough decisions—either remain vulnerable and protect their teammate or destroy the net, giving away a sound cue that you can use to your advantage.
On attack, her net grenade can pair well with Initiators who provide vision. Once you locate an enemy, you can trap them in the net, then follow up with a peek or a teammate’s molly or grenade. Her ultimate, while finnicky, becomes more effective when you plan its placement carefully. Using it on-the-fly often leads to issues with map geometry, as Riot’s decision to bypass clipping on certain objects makes its behavior less predictable.
As you can see, Deadlock’s potential extends far beyond simply using her Sonic Sensor as a tripwire replacement. Unfortunately, the professional scene and its coaches often stick to tried-and-true strategies rather than exploring new approaches. This mindset filters down to the broader player base, reinforcing limited thinking about what’s viable or “meta.”
I’ll end with a controversial take: you can’t take what you hear on the VCT desk as gospel. Listening to analysts and expecting to improve is a mistake. While they may be entertaining, there’s no fundamental difference between their opinions and those of other high-level players. Improvement in tactical FPS games comes from intellectual study and experimentation, not from following the crowd. There’s no textbook or PhD program for mastering tactical shooters. Those who take the time to truly understand the game’s mechanics will always have the edge in the long run.
No problem. Let's go ahead and set the stage for the definitions of each from Riot.
Definitions from Riot for Sentinel and Controller:
I think where a lot of people get caught up is when what you see is the only way you can play an agent. One of the unfortunate things about the educational community in Valorant is that they are linear. I think people believe that pro players are just players with a longer list of rules than them. That's simply not even close.
There is literally so much space for creativity that we miss this and shun people who think differently. Some of the most interesting esports experiences have been creativity driven. I'm not sure if you know about Brax but he's from Counter-Strike and is known for throwing his pistol up and pretending its a flash. I don't think you could find a single pro at the time who would think that was a good idea. Same thing with Stewie2k, I don't think you could find a single person who was throwing flashes throw smokes like he did. These are expressions of creativity and not rules.
And while there is a lot of value in learning the basics, you shouldn't let that be the end all of your journey. The truth of the matter is that once you get to the pro level, you punish people based on rules you think they follow. Sometimes plays look absolutely dumb but they work because the opponent literally thinks you would never do something like that, because it's so dumb.
All this to say that Sage being a Sentinel is murky by design. It is an expression of creativity from the Riot devs on the concept of a Sentinel. We saw the same sort of rejection of Deadlock. When Deadlock first came out the whole scene decided she was bad because her Sonic Sensor didn't act like a Cypher trip. That's the whole point. Developers do not want to copy and paste the same designs over and over. Sometimes they overdo it and need to tone it back but in general, I don't think people want Cypher coming out 100 times as a new agent when there is simply nothing new about it.
The reasons I would consider Sage a Sentinel are her wall denies space and vision. She can control space with her slow ability. I think those are the two things that make her primarily a Sentinel. Her Resurrection and Heal are more selling points for a certain type of playstyle. A playstyle for playing passive.
For me, controllers offer a gamble and don't lock anything down. Pick any agent and their abilities offer you the chance to attack or defend an area but at a price. Those price points are vulnerability and damage. Outside of Astra's slow, most controllers are there to make it risky for you to attack. I know this seems similar but controllers don't focus on attacking your movement, they focus on attacking your health pool.
But I think at the end of the day, the beautiful part is, you can choose to play any agent the way you want. I think that the base of this game is essentially Counter-Strike and the agent is just a flavoring or an enhancement on top.
Hey, I know that you're really trying here and I definitely support your journey. But you are confusing the role with how you play her.
Just to spot check your video, you don't view Sage as a Sentinel because you don't use her as intended. You mention in the video that she doesn't provide intel. Well that's just because you relate the word "intel" to agents that trigger something that let's people know. But the inverse of that is her wall.
If something placed on the map tells you where people are then a wall can tell you where people are not. If you block off a certain direction the enemy cannot come from that direction unless you have an agent that can get above the wall. You might think you've have a gotcha moment with this but all Sentinels can be avoided.
But once again, I think we need more people like you trying to come up and rationalize the game. Keep at it and feel free to argue with me as that is how I learned a lot of the time.
No other rankers? Doing a survey for school.
Do you think that the matchmaking experience for everyone is the same?
Do you think that groups have the same experience as a solo player?
Do you experience the beginning of the season 70% winrate?
We gotta start calling out weird people.
This is made up. This person is just saying words. He is living in a pretend world where he knows things no one else knows but him and FNS.
What is this obsession with past coaches... you realize if they were good they would never be let go? You understand that right? I totally do not understand how your brains work.
He was let go because he wasn't good.
They could all be Radiant if they kitten.
Overwatch, Deadlock... It's pretty simple devs, if it's a first person SHOOTER, we don't need rock paper scissor mechanics. The person with the best aim deserves to win. Every time you move from this idea your game dies. RIPiss.
Dude has never heard of money. Make sense when you take a month long vacation every year.
i swear boostio is the scumiest of the scum
-Zikz... Dude won a championship like a bench player on any sports team.
Get's dominated... to have an extra timeout... im sure it was some audio issue that is just working again
How dare you guys question Potter. She won a championship and you can't question how to do things. She's better and smarter than you.
Yal just post the same lame stuff every day.
Unlucky this is more of the same. Keep the cope guys. EG + YAY energy has no limits.
Two things I cannot stress enough. One, the coach. Imagine trying to come up with clever ideas when you're not even in the rank your players play in. Second, because they are not at a high enough level (which I don't think is achievable anymore without a cheater to help you rank) you imitate what you think is the correct way to play. Where do they get that information, the players who play ranked or watching other teams who run their teams like ranked teams.
I cannot STRESS how the current ecosystem is fraught with frauds. We refuse as a community to acknowledge it. We pretend that the people who are gatekeeping the entire community are the best we have. We rotate them in and out of other teams because tier 2 cannot reach the viewership of tier 1 and these coaches literally look at tournament stats to pick up players.
I challenge any pro to show me your old stratbook and prove to the community that it is longer than 5 pages and doesn't have spelling mistakes.
We need to demand better. The org owners listen to the community. We need to voice that we want better.
Not to be racist but this is not an American account. This looks like bait from a certain country that is always on vlr.
There is this huge campaign for casual players where because they have numbers they complain and devs ALWAYS OVERREACT. I'm tired of this we gotta make everyone feel good about themselves at the expense of everyone else. Skill is dead. If you spend all your time playing these games you literally are going to hit a ceiling that has nothing to do with you. I'm soooooooooooooooo tired. It's every game now.
Sensationalism by the media is on full display sheeple.
It's not close. Riot Studios is on Olympic. Pacific Palisades is like 4 miles from there. Not to mention about 4 miles of concerete.
Just getting tired of casualization of video games. They are turning it into mobile games. They legit casualized rank with engagement optimized matchmaking. The best players in the server are not always the winners. And that's dumb.
They nerf Hawkeye but he has zero counter play to like... half the roster. Don't worry we prefer button mashing to skill.
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